carry on wayward son
by lifeless nemo
Summary: a second chance is a horrible thing to waste


A lone masked figure lay crumpled on his knees; bloody tears all but completely disabled his sight. Before him stood an entire army all with weapons as varied as they were deadly, his own was in the sure grip of the one standing in front of him. She examined like it was a source of novelty before casting it away like trash.

"Did you actually think this would work?" she scoffed

The kenshi was thankful for the mask it hid most of the pain her words caused.

"That a few words would make me forget what you do, what you are."

She started a slow walk toward him unsheathing her own blade from the cleaver like sheath on her back. She did a blinding slash splitting the mask in two revealing one his glowing blood red eyes, she thought it was fitting how similar they were to the monsters she had dedicated her life to annihilating. She grabbed his bloodied crimson shirt and pulled him in mere inches away from her face, not bothering to remove the rest of the mask. To her the mask was his real face the bloody eyes were stolen from someone who died long ago. She was facing his killer

"You're not even worthy to live, and you honestly think your worthy of me."

She pulled him even closer and whispered into his ear.

"Fore who could ever love a beast."

Without a seconds hesitation she ran her blade, the blade he helped painstakingly create straight through his chest before ripping it out in a single clean motion before carelessly dropping him on the cold floor. His last sight was of that of her walking away toward three brightly colored figures of red, white, and yellow.

Groggy crimson eyes were brought back to life as the first saffron rays of light penetrated the motel room, awakening him from his uneasy rest. The dream or at least others like it had become more or less a routine for him in the past few months. But if nothing else they were seemingly slowing down in frequency, and were beyond tamer, some of those earlier ones would stick with him for years. An aged digital clock, its early technology only making its antiquated existence even more noticeable on a nearby nightstand roared to life screaming a late nineties pop punk song to celebrate the start of a new day. He stared at it with amusement, he no longer felt the need for such a thing, and since Blake's leaving he has become insanely more lax with his duties. Some of the mercenaries that the white fang hired were more committed at this point, but he liked the song, so he cruelly let the poor aged radio sing on as he got dressed, He could have sworn that he turned the damned alarm off though. Perhaps in its twilight years it acquired sentience and decided to celebrate it by torturing the one who refused to let it go?

Looking through the various clothes he had to choose from he opted for a more simple approach then his usual choice of a black and red suit, instead he chose a pair of black jeans a red tee and a black torn and sown together hoodie that's been with him even longer than Blake, and just started to fit properly in the last year. When he finally decided to let the poor machine rest, his eyes caught the sight of a framed photo. Inside the preserved moment were two kids in the middle of their teens standing in front of a carnival ride on a boardwalk, with the midday sun lighting up the ocean in every combination of theoretical blue. The fourteen year old black haired girl with a pair of violet cat ears and the fifth teen year old boy with dark auburn hair and a pair of jet black ibex horns gave wolfish grins to the camera. Looking as though they thought they knew exactly what the world was capable of, and that they knew that as long as they stuck together that the world was no match for them. He felt the immediate urge to throw that picture in a fire. The Thing was a painfully good memory of an uncountable amount of things at the best of times, and horribly toxic acid that threatened to consume him at the rest of them, it did nothing but destroy him. Still though, quite shamefully he put the insipid moment back on the nightstand. Sitting next to where it once was and now stood was an even worse type of preserved moment in amber, a thin ash white mask with Grimm inspired markings covering its body. The markings were a sign of rank; they meant that he was a member of infiltration force, and that he was as strong as or even stronger than any hunter that the remnant had to offer. This damned thing he quite clearly remembered throwing in a roaring furnace almost as soon as he got home from that blood stained forest. A small cynical snicker escaped his barely opened mouth as he rubbed his thumb over the smooth surface, his hand moving down the depressions of the narrow eye slits. 'What a worthless thing' was all that came to mind regarding the mask.

Leaving the room for the naturally lit living room of the apartment, a small part of him wondered if he should simply burn it all to the ground. The amount that it would spite Eugene would make it all worthwhile to be perfectly honest, but while mentally looking for a thing to ignite the place and send it to hell he heard a small squeak of a door opening. Through it walked the most beautiful girl he had ever known with raven hair and two feline ears rose from the crown of her head. She was wearing a short black kimono that remained open near her breast to give hints at her flawless form. No thoughts came to his mind. He simply looked at her resembling nothing more than deer in the headlights; he could almost feel his horns become antlers. She was the first to speak, and her voice nearly brought him to his knees.

"You're not, wearing your mask." She said it softly and dejectedly, but there was something suppressed in there. It almost sounded like hope. She walked like a benign spirit to the bathroom in hopes of a shower, he almost fallowed. If it was not for the ring of the telephone he would have. If the fucking telephone had a less annoying and eardrum splittingly loud ring he definitely would have. There was only one person that would call this place and he answered them in the manor to which they had become accustomed "What."

"Don't take that tone with me Taurus."

"Or what, Eugene, What in the precise hell are you going to do" There was a silence on the other side of the line before Eugene finally spoke up again

"Your mission in forever fall is still on for today, and Adam. Never speak like that to me again."

"I speak to you however I damn well please you pig faced bastard, and Eugene if you ever get the thought that interrupting my mornings again, you'll have more issues to deal with than my attitude."

He hung up the phone with malicful vigor, whatever gave Eugene the idea that he had the right to call him at his home anymore he had no idea, especially after what he did to Leo. The ambient sound of hot water falling stopped, and shortly after the raven haired feline walked out the bathroom fully dressed in what he only described as gothic cocktail waitress chic, but was still in the middle of the well-rehearsed act of tying her bow. They stood together in the room, neither one really able to make heads or tails of the other. Just looking at each other hoping they'll speak first, Adam lost

"Blake, what are you doing here?" her eyes twisted with confusion so he asked her again "What is the life of a huntress proving itself to be too hard already?" Her face went from confused to terrified in a matter of milliseconds, staring at him with the fear of god in her amber eyes

"h-how did you know about that" That made him chuckle. Not to anyone but himself though she heard it just fine. He tried with all his might to expel the tension in the room, and treated the next words out of his mouth as the first shovelful in a mound the size of the moon.

"Well id hardly say you did the greatest job of concealing it." He genuinely smiled when he said it and somehow that confused her even more. She hadn't seen Adam smile in over a year, ever since that stupid mission in Atlas. She sighed, and the next words that came out felt like cyanide, she kept her eyes glued to his feet.

"Adam, I know where I belong. I know what needs to be done. I just…" he leaned in and gave her a tight embrace, nearly becoming drunk off her scent in the process. They stood there like this until she finally returned the favor, and for the first time in over a year he felt at peace. But he knew it couldn't last. Good things rarely do.

"Blake. You really need to get out of here; this place was never right for you anyway"

She gave a tiny chuckle before replying.

"Well it's not like I can let you rob a train alone can I" That confused him, he had a mission in forever fall but it had nothing to do with a train, why the hell he would even still go on the mission at all was still beyond him.

"Can't we just stay here?" Her face became worried.

"After what Leo did to you last time"

"I somehow don't think he'll be a problem" He put it like this simply because there was no polite way of saying he purposely beat a man into a vegetable. She stared at him until she noticed the clock above the door. Her eyes widened with horror at the time.

"We got to go, get your jacket on." With that she left through the door like a ghost, not even making a noise as she gently slammed the creaky door. He on the other hand felt no rush, and sauntered back into his room before turning to the closet and pulling out the dark trench coat. As he was about to leave the room he caught sight of a newspaper. The head line read something about some other terrorist group stealing a small plane and crashing it into a hospital. But it was the date that caught his eye. March, 15th, 178. It was the day that Blake left.

He stood on the peak of the jagged noir mountain overlooking the forest that resembled a sea of blood, outlines of occasional black peeking through the crimson canopy. In the distance a tall jet of opaque smoke fallowed a curved vector to the heavens, marking the path of train as it approached form the horizon. The warm winds of the encroaching spring lapped against his face as he dived toward the ground like a soul damned to hell and at the last possible second he did a backflip and landed on his feet without a single sound, the fog on the forest floor parting by his feet. He moved like a waif toward his sunbathing partner. She looked at him with a composed expression, he spoke with a slightly spaced out tone.

"Blake it's time." She became slightly more tensed

"O.K"

They sped through the forest like shadows, silent wakes made of mist fallowing in their paths, when they reached the cliff side overlooking the train tracks they stopped and gazed down at the approaching machine. The thing looked almost cynical in its design with harsh sharp angles protruding from the engine and an unsettling flack black used to paint the thing, on one of the cars was the words "never forget" a phrase used to mark the thing for them put their in the middle of the night. It reminded him of another phrase he heard "the worst thing a Faunus could be was reminiscent" a quote from the original leader and creator of the white fang. They dropped from the cliff and slid down the incline before vaulting onto the speeding hulk. When he landed he drove his crimson blade into the top of the car to avoid sliding off. Blake on the other hand landed with cat like grace, his intuition told him that making a joke out of this was an unbelievably stupid thing to do right now. Also none came to his mind. The duo mutely came to a drop door, and he eyed it for a second, he knew what was down there, but to be fair though. He knew what was down there the first time too. Blake gave him a reassuring look and with a moment's hesitation he unsheathe, slashed the lock, and sheathed his blade so fast that no eyes human or Faunus could possibly pick up the movements.

They fell into a dark room that quickly filled with red lights as the walls seemed to come to life. One of the Robots seemed to distinguish itself from the rest, it asked in an official tone

"Intruders, identify yourself." He quietly asked something to himself

"If you already know who I am, then why would I identify myself?" He angled the sheath down to the ground and pulled the trigger; the katana ricocheted off the floor, spun, and impaled itself in the center of the robots head. Blake turned around with a stupefied look on her face; he returned fire with the world's lamest smile. It was a fabulously sophomoric technique he acquired in the past year, but it worked flawlessly, most of the time. Enraged at the loss of their leader the rest of the army charged forward. The ebony clad duo danced around cutting the heads off of droids while flawlessly dodging attacks meant to tear them to pieces. When they came outside an entire squad of ak-130s heavily trudged toward them. His body glowed red and his eyes became grim like, and a wave of red came forward and reduced them all too red petal like ash. Blake came to his side

"Are you ok." normally when he did that it put him all but out of condition for two days. He replied

"Peachy." She looked confused for the fiftieth time that day, and it has only been three hours.

"Adam normally after you use your semblance I can't get you out of bed for half a week.

"I was doing some special training while you were gone."

"I was only gone two days?"

"It felt longer from my angle." Fifty one.

They entered the cargo hold of the car. He unceremoniously opened one of the crates to discover the objective of their quarrel, some of the finest dust in the remnant. Capable of fueling an entire army for months, some would say the contents in the car were priceless. They were sent to make sure that it wouldn't reach its destination. He was reminded of the heavy weight in his pocket. The explosives he was given to destroy the magical rocks. They weren't all that big, but they didn't have to be. The stones themselves would be the ones to take care of most of the work.

"Move up to the next car, I'll set the charges."

"What about the crew members." She looked horrified but tried to hide it. When he looked at her all words in his mouth died whatever strength he had through the first run-through of this day wasn't with him now.

"…Blake…" There was a few heavy thumps coming from the ceiling, and a massive walking spider droid colored a dark grey and a hateful crimson charged at them, the fact that it got him out of having to explain himself made it feel like a gift from the gods. Its four small car sized guns morphed into one gargantuan cannon and started to glow white, bringing Adam out of his heavenly bliss. It let loose its white hot cannon targeting Blake, at the last possible second he jumped in front of the beam, inadvertently getting them both blasted onto the next car. The Spider charged forward its cannon reversed back into its four guns ready to annihilate the two that dared to harm its ward. The two terrorist in question rose to their feet, Blake was a bit jumbled, Adams jacket was ruined and a large first degree burn was on his chest, but he would be fine. She took the imitative and charged the walking tank using her semblance and all three of her weapons form to distract the mechanical beast, it was going well until the monster got in a hail-Mary and scored a hit on her torso. A shrill cry escaped her lips as he dove forward to catch her, as she was scooped up princess style he ran back to the next car before letting her down on the next car up, though he didn't know this at the time this was the same spot that she told him farewell forever. He turned to face the mechanical monstrosity, his eyes glowed like a grim and liquid crimson marking flowed like rivers over his body, when he cut the beast he put in every ounce of pain and rage he had, reducing it and the top halves of the next three cars to wilted rose petals that flowed in the wind before hitting the ground and blending into the forest floor. Every ounce of energy in his body left him when he returned to his normal red self. He turned to face Blake expecting to see her to splitting the cars; instead she was standing their waiting and calling out to him.

"What are you waiting for?" his face was dumbfounded; the final score was fifty-two to two.


End file.
